Expert: Dr Don Howe - 8/12/2008

Question
Hey there dr, i just want to ask a simple question if i may, i need to know why baptist call wednesday midweek like the world and call sunday sabbath? It takes a grade r student to tell you that that dont ad up, ive read some of the answers given on the saterday sabbath and all says, Jesus came to change eventho' Jesus said, i came not to distroy but to fulfill, we dont live under the law, yet we christians keep his commandments, at least thats what the baptist church says, what is the diverence between the law and the comandments, if there is I surly would love to know, Rev14v12 says....those who obey Gods commandments and are faithful to Jesus, it is with great regret that i write these words, 'IT IS BETTER FOR YOU NOT TO KNOW THAN FOR YOU TO KNOW FOR YOU SHALL BE JUGED ACCORDING TO WHAT YOU KNOW' ,so it griefs me to know that you know when the sabbath of the LORD is yet you worship on another day. I cant believe that some of you, if not all can read the bible out of content, the desiples was together on the first day, yes thats true, but is you realy read the scripture you will see that they where not there to worship God, but were there out of fear, out of all that i wrote i would especially want you to prove to me that sunday is the true day of worship, and sure, i will start to atend your church. But it must be out of scripture..

Answer
  Good evening Jonathan. You state “that i wrote i would especially want you to prove to me that sunday is the true day of worship.” I do not need to prove anything to you. The Word of God stands by itself. Whether you believe what the Word says or not is up to you.   Why do people get so hung up on the Sabbath? Some people worship on the Sabbath that is okay, some people worship on Sunday that is okay, some people worship on Saturday night that is okay,  and still others worship on some other day that is okay. God does not care what day of the week of we worship him but He does expect us to worship him and glorify what Jesus did on the cross. But some religious leaders and religions try to force us out of traditions of men to worship on certain days, and the Holy Word of God says to beware of these type of people.  Paul tells us not to be fooled by philosophies and traditions of men in Col. 2:8 “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Spoil in the Greek is sylagōgeō which means to lead away from the truth and subject to one's sway. Paul is saying beware of any man who leads you away from the truth and subject’s you to his way only with vain deceit, rudiments of the world, AND TRADITIONS OF MEN. So if one says we have to worship on the Sabbath, or Sunday or any other day, Paul is saying they are trying to lead us away from the truth, and trying to get to follow the TRADITIONS OF MEN and not Scripture.
   Paul goes on further in Colossians 2:16 let no man is to judge us on what day of the week we worship “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath [days].” Because Jesus won such a glorious victory on the cross, we are to let no one judge you in food or in drink or in other matters related to legalism. A life that is centered on Jesus and what He did on the cross has no place for legalism or as previously stated by Paul in Col. 2:8 traditions of men. Judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath [days]: The Old Testament law had certain provisions that are done away with in Jesus, regarding such things as food and sabbaths. It isn’t that those laws were bad, simply that they were a shadow of things to come. Once the substance - Jesus Christ - has come, we don’t need to shadow any more.
  Jonathan, the Sabbath originally came from the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments is also referred to as the  Decalogue. The commandment about the Sabbath comes from Ex. 20:8 which states “Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.” It is the fourth commandment in the Decalogue. Eddie, we are to keep the Sabbath Day and keep it holy, but it is hard to to keep something holy if you do not understand what it is, where it came from, or why you are to remember it. The word ‘Sabbath’ comes from Hebrew word Sabbat which means day of rest. God tells us about this day of rest (Sabbath) in full text in Exodus 20:8-11 which states “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates: For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” So on the Sabbath Day (the seventh day of the week) we are to rest and be hallowed. The word hallowed is qadash in Hebrew which means to be set apart, be treated as sacred or to be holy. The Sabbath Day is to be a day of rest, set apart, made holy as God is Holy, because God rested on the seventh day of creation. Gen. 2:2-3 states “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”
  If the Sabbath is to be a day of rest, no work, and day to be holy or set apart as God is holy,  what went wrong? Besides His claim as being the Messiah,  there is no subject on which our Lord came into such sharp conflict with the religious leaders of the Jews as in the matter of Sabbath observance. Why was Jesus in such sharp conflict with the Pharisees?
  With the development of the synagogue the Sabbath became a day of worship and of study of the Law, as well as a day of cessation from all secular employment. But during the period between Ezra and the Christian era that the spirit of Jewish legalism flourished. Innumerable restrictions and rules were formulated for the conduct of life under the Law. Great principles were lost to sight in the mass of petty details. The Pharisees’ legalism placed all these restrictions on the Sabbath. God only said to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy, rest, and do not labor on the seventh day. God did not put these restrictions upon the Sabbath, but the Pharisees did.
    It was all these Pharisaical restrictions and legalism about the Sabbath day that caused the Lord Jesus to be in such sharp conflict with the Pharisees. Jesus told the Pharisees in Matt. 23:23 that they were so eat up with their legalism and restrictions that you   “have omitted the weightier [matters] of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done.”
       Jesus  set Himself squarely against the current rabbinic restrictions as contrary to the spirit of the original law of the Sabbath. The rabbis seemed to think that the Sabbath was an end in itself, an institution to which the pious Israelite must subject all his personal interests; in other words, that man was made for the Sabbath: man might suffer hardship, but the institution must be preserved inviolate. Jesus, on the contrary, taught that the Sabbath was made for man’s benefit. If there should arise a conflict between man’s needs and the letter of the Law, man’s higher interests and needs must take precedence over the law of the Sabbath. This is shown no better than in Matt. 12:1-14. Jesus even told the Pharisees in 12:8 “For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.”
    Jesus did not discredit the Sabbath in fact it  was his custom to come to the synagogue on the Sabbath (Lk. 4:16). Jesus held the Sabbath in high regard. As the Messiah, He was not subject to its restrictions; He could at any moment assert His lordship over the Sabbath (Mt 2:28). Jesus pushed the great moral precepts of the Sabbath. He remembered the Sabbath as “was his custom” (Lk. 4:16) and kept it holy or set apart as He was the God in the Flesh, the Messiah.
    The early church fathers started worshiping on Sunday since this the day the Lord was resurrected. The New Testament never calls Sunday the Sabbath (a day of rest) but is always the first day of the week and this shown in Acts 20:7-8 as an example.
    Follow me please. But according to Church history, later church councils started applying Sabbath rules from the Old Testament to Sunday, and this has lead us to where we are today. The Old Testament  day of rest (Sabbath) has been applied to Sunday. Our way of life in America is a result of this in which we worship on Sunday and rest on Sunday. Look at the Blue Laws that were passed in the 1950’s and 1960’s in which stores had to close on Sunday because it was a day of rest and worship. It is incorrect to call Sunday the “Christian Sabbath” as some have called it. Jonathan, the Bible is very exact and does not change, Sunday is called the first day of the week for worship, and the seventh day of the week is called the Sabbath and a day of rest. Notice I said he bible calls the first day of week Sunday and the last day of the week the Sabbath, but the bible does not say WE HAVE TO WORSHIP ON SUNCAY, REST ON THE SEVENTH DAY OR VICE VERSA. But the bible tells us that we need to be not deceived by false doctrines concerning the day of worship, false teaching or philosophies concerning the day of worship or Sabbath, and do not follow the traditions of men (Col. 2:8, 16). God gives us the freedom to worship what day we want but besure it is not according to the traditions of men, principalities of the world, but according to Christ.  
   Jonathan you asked “i need to know why baptist call wednesday midweek like the world and call sunday sabbath?” Do not be stressed out by such trivialities as what the Baptist call Midweek, or call Sunday Sabbath? The only thing you need to besure of is that you have accepted Jesus as your Savior and you have a personal relationship with Him. Nothing else matters. Some Baptist call midweek just that Midweek Service and others call it Midweek Prayer service. No Baptist calls Sunday a Christian Sabbath, as stated above. Sunday is the first day of the week and the day we worship the Lord Jesus.
    Be of good cheer my brother. Just always be packed up, rested up, prayed up, because we are moving on up according to 1 Thess. 4:16.
    Blessings.

Dr. Don Howe, RN, PhD, ThD.